Monday, 8 June 2015

I've bought a shit load of Orks!
I am going to be fooling round with Orks for the local club - the usual tournament lists combined with my solid play are... over the top... for the local meta.
Like most clubs we have a real mix of players, competitive through to casual and as a result, it can be a little...lop-sided.

My plan then? Challenge myself to play the most underpowered and unconventional force in 40k.

I like to use math/stats/averages to balance out the fickle nature of the dice gods, I am quite fearful of doing this with Orks based on their unpredictable nature, but I think I have a few reasonably tough builds that will also be fun to play.

My "collection" is extremely extensive - it's gone from "no Orks" to about 4-5000 points in a week... Built too which is even better.

Massive sad face though - it's all unpainted! Mother. Fucker. There a load of boys!

I have lined up a game at the club for this week and have 2 lists which I want to try - I'd like your opinions on which I should run. I'll take the majority vote...

Friday, 5 June 2015

So following on from yesterday's post about the beauty of Drop Pods in 7e 40k (or whatever we are in now lol...) I want to talk about Space Wolves - you can see from the number of posts (right) that I love Wolves and have been taking them for donkeys years, but they are somewhat.. maligned right now on the tournament scene outside of a couple of EXTREME builds mainly focussed around crazy deathstar builds.

These are great and can be very fun to use - they also allow the use of forces that otherwise might not be seen such as Sisters and Dark Angels.

But in a more balanced sense they have dropped off (no pun intended!) the scene.
For a SEMI COMPETITIVE build though you can build some great and FUN SW builds.
Here is one example of a way to get in some of the flavour of the Sons of Russ and still be pretty decent.
This uses the Champions of Fenris list (like all of the decent Wolf builds these days) and is only using one detachment.
The idea behind this is simple - give me something to play at the club (Sons of War Cambridge - check us out on Facebook) that is not too crazy good as to piss people off!!

Rune Priest - Bike

Murderfang, the Curseborn - Drop Pod

6 x 5 man Wolf Guard with 4 CombiMeltas - Drop Pods

1 x 6 man Wolf Guard with 5 CombiPlasma - Drop Pod

3 x 5 man Grey Hunters with a Meltagun - Drop Pods

1 x FA Drop Pod

5 x Thunderwolf Cavalry stock

This allows me to drop in the Murderfang and a load of Melta turn one (or the plasma if I need it, situational of course) and bomb up the Thunderwolves with Rune Priest for a cool ass Turn 2 charge from a load of crazy Wolf bitches.

Murderfang is a cool model that I've literally never had the chance to drop on the tabletop - in a competitive army he simply doesn't have a place...this is a unit that is a perfect example of GW fun design philosophy - great in idea, weak in application.

I think Murderfang could be wicked fun IF, IF, IF the poor bastard survives a turn! He drops in, he heavy flames a unit, hangs out in cover near to some ground based units... as long as they are not the ubiquitous Eldar Scatter Bikes (cause they'll just leg it and he will do nothing all game lol)... the other SW kill any dedicated anti-vehicle they can to help him survive, then the first wave plus TWC charge all over the place whilst the remaining Wolf Guard and Grey Hunters drop in and take maelstrom and round up other units that are threatening.

I've found with combat squad space marines that dropping in with lots of little units mean that they get a spanking, but a lot of 1 or 2 man units running around can still be a pain in the arse!

Thursday, 4 June 2015

Yup.
Armies these days just fuck you up.
There are so many lists out there that can really put a hammering on you first turn if they get to fire first.
I've tried a lot of armies over the years and I hate coming up against an army that just utterly spanks you turn one and then you have 1500-1400 points left to hit back.
Armies have to be Invisibile, hyper resilient with 2+/3++/FNP, out of range and then out of range themselves turn one.... Or null deploy.

At the recent tournament I attended, I always knew I had a good shot at causing damage due to my two units of drop podding Grav Cents - these were supported by Mephiston hanging out with one of them granting some funky Psychic support as well as counter assault.

So no matter what I was facing I knew I could do damage. Anecdotally, in a bad match up going second vs demons (with a gravcentric army), my grav cents dropped in and killed Fateweaver who was hidden on the ground. It got me 4 points across First Blood, Warlord, Kill a unit in the shooting phase and Kill a flier Maelstrom cards. Sweet.
(Aside: Those were the only points I scored til turn 4!)

Moving to more Centurions is of course an option - 3 units of podding Centurions would mean a significant hit on the enemy force. Serious damage without recourse.

If the game has moved to a situation where armies can put out sooo much hurt that you can't stand a round of unmolested enemy shooting, then don't let it.

11 Drop Pods are perfectly feasible with deadly payloads across a multitude of armies thanks to the Flesh Tearers Strike Force.

I have tried SM Grav Cents, Imperial Guard, Skitarri and have witnessed the effectiveness of Sisters Of Battle/Adeptus Sororitas first hand on the tournament scene..

These all work.

This was you can drop in and put a serious hit in with 6 pods in the first turn.

To be honest, the Skitarii hit the hardest - the radium carbines are insane from the Vanguard, they put ridiculous hurt on ANYTHING! The triple special weapons is also insane...need to kill a vehicle? Drop in triple Rapid Fire Haywire units! Boom! If you take the unit and are concerned with the match up that has no vehicles... well, remember these weapons are still S6.. As for the Plasma Calivers.. heh, forgedda bout it!
Awesome, awesome army.
Do NOT underestimate the Skitarii in Drop Pods. I bloody love them!

Triple Grav Cents also put in the work, naturally... these have been covered in sufficient detail before..

The real question is... I've just finished my 11th pod so I don't have to "rhino-standing-up-proxy" them anymore... BUT the news has just hit that Assault Squads do not get a free Pod as a transport if they don't take Jump Packs...making them more expensive.. Wonder what the new Space Marine Codex has in store for my current favourite method of marine delivery.

Last night I played a more chilled out version of the army with pure Space Marines from a single CAD.

Libbie

2 x 10 Man Sternguard with 3 Combi Melta, 3 Combi Grav - Drop Pods

1 x 5 Man Sternguard with 3 Combi Grav - Drop Pod

6 x 5 Man Tac squads with Melta, Combi Melta - Drop Pods

2 x 5 Man Assault Squad with 2 Flamers each - Drop Pods

Of course, in the new Codex, we know first of all that the list is now illegal lol... HOWEVER, I played against the new Eldar and they performed admirably, the Sternguard accounting for several units of Scatter Bikes and a Farseer in turn 1.. Of course, the little squads (all combat squads) all got a spanking from the remaining Bikes, the insanely fun Eldritch Storm and a Wraithknight.
But I won overall. Love Drop Pods

Please GW....Don't make me paint even more models! Saying that... I do have a secret geek-crush on Terminators and I'd bloody love it if they could be made viable in some way again and I could actually use mine...

Caught up with the England boys and had a blast talking shit and good food and few beers on Saturday night.

My list is in the last post.

It did what I wanted it to do, but I got caught out once on a seize and was given first turn after conservative deployment and scout in another game that left me out to dry...surprise to say, I lost those games.

This army wanted to go first and hit real hard.

Game 1 - Imperial Guard Russes and Grey Knights termies and Dreadknights. Lots of usually very tough to kill models. Unless you field an army of hyper mobile grav... Despite my opponent best tricks, it really did come down to me staying out of range, pushing to my envelope and dangling melta bait..then sweeping in the following turn with bike Grav and finishing anything the two Drop Pod Cents hadn't killed.

Stu was a great opponent and lives relatively locally, have since been in touch and trying to organise a games day with a few buddies... But it was a bad match up.

Game 2 - old Eldar with Hornets galore, Serpents, Dcannon battery and Wraithknight. I went first and was able to remove serpents and wraithknight.. The cannons hit my cents hard and then it was cat and mouse with the Hornets who outflanked. Tough, nail biter towards the end, but I had enough maelstrom and kill points to secure a narrow victory even if I didn't get any of the Eternal War at the end...suffice to say I did and it was all good. Mike was a very good opponent, very chilled, knew his tactics well enough to kick back and enjoy a few brewskis. Top lad, tough game

Was too aggressive in this one, really I should have deployed out of range for a turn or 2/3 and just grabbed some maelstroms and stayed alive. Certainly, it's bad match up, however going first and with ignores cover/Auspex on my GrAv Cents, I felt I had a chance.. Alas.. It was one of those things.

Alex took the seize with grace and style... Or danced around with glee...if you know Alex H you can guess which it was.. ;)

We had a good few beers that night and chatted shit and caught up, so I let him off seizing on me...

Game 4 was full Drop Pod Melta with FT SF/ Sisters. The Fast Attack/Dantes Drop Pod Emporium allowed for a nasty wave of melta to drop in and get me... However, I had a cunning plan and deployed accordingly. It's a secret sauce plan just in case drop pods hit hard in the tourney scene (which I think they will..see tomorrows post re Skitarri in Pods) and it worked ...flawlessly. Game to me via deployment. Was a slow slog to get through all the peeps, but it worked out well.

Game 5 was competing for third place. Grav Bikes vs..........Demons. Doh. No bloody armour.

It's ok, I'll go first and Bolter the 3 packs of screamers to death...well 2 of them.. No. Deploying second.

Paul deploys aggressively on the line with all screamer units. I am aware that with the multiple Divination Rending he rolled up I could lose 3/6 bikes units in a turn I go within 34-36" of him, the

other units I could lose to Fateweaver and Tzeentchian firepower from Flickering Fire en masse. So I deployed conservatively, and then Paul gave me first turn.

Shit.

I dropped in and killed Fatey for first blood, warlord and 2 maelstroms...then got smashed. My error. I asked Paul if he would give me first turn no matter what..he said if I'd have deployed on about the 34-36"'.... Yes. Then I could have got long range bolter shots but nothing more. It's a bad match up for my army, we all said so...but I'll have to playtest to see if I can get points.

Overall, finsihed 10th according to the spreadsheet and had an amazing time with 3 big wins and 2 big losses..the army truly is "go big or go home" and I've been convinced by the weekend that more pods are the way to go. I've got several builds I want to run, one using Melta Astra Militarum, one with Skitarri. I've played the Skitarri...and bloody love them!! More on that this week!

Saturday, 16 May 2015

Off we go!
Today is the War of the Roses - an 1850, 5 game 2 day tournament run by the England ETC team (Big Mike in particular) and has basically no comp at all.
This will, undoubtedly, lead to some horrible armies and a sneak peak at some of the playtesting/lists for the England team - always interesting.
NOTE: With a toe or two still in the camp, I do know these already, but I refer to the general tournament attendees.

It's looking reasonably well attended with around 35 players.

That'll do me - this is, shockingly, my first 2 day tournament in OVER A YEAR! Wow!
The last one was the Caledonian Uprising 2014!
Man, that was SOOO long ago!
I ended up, officially 34/35th I think after a big ol' points deduction for a list change last minute, busting me from, in Battle points, high teens (out of 110 players).. which was a real shame, but ...my own fault!
I also won Most Sporting which was nice.

More recently, I took Best General and 2nd place overall at the recent LazrBlast single day event in Norwich.

I find myself quite excited! I've not gotten a weekend of geekery in for bloody ages and the chance to see top level play again helps to keep me excited and up for this game.

I'm running a SM Bike and Centurion Pod list using Flesh Tearers Strike Force.
(Again, I'm keeping some of the blog's Blood Angel roots alive! I really like the BA book and with Pods becoming a major focus for me over the next few months... we'll see more of it! Interestingly, note Torrent of Fire and Nick Nanavanti toying with an excellent unit - the Frag-Furioso!)

The other lists have not been published as yet and the first round match ups are not out yet, I assume they are being done on the day...today... I forget I'm writing this in advance!

My list is:

Khan (Warlord)

3 x 5 Bikes with double Meltaguns and a Combi-Melta

3 x 5 Bikes with double Gravguns and a Combi-Grav

2 x 3 Centurions with Grav Cannons, Hurricane Bolters, Omniscope

Mephiston

5 Bolter Scouts

3 x Drop Pods

This allows me to drop Meph and both units of Cents in on the first turn with the scouting bikes to create a truly lethal Alpha Strike.

Going second, I can scout/deploy the bikes out of sight or range and try and get the first strike myself using speed and pods.

Maelstrm is in use here and although you can only score 2 tactical cards per urn, the speed and positioning of the army allows me to maximise opportunities to score.

I was going to run Adamantium Lance with Astra Militarum allies, but as there is currently a vote in play to ban/allow Ad Lance and the iKnight codex from the ETC, I thought it would be better to run something that is more likely to be seen as practice for the England boys.

So - fingers crossed. I'm hoping for a Top 10, but that means pushing someone in the England set up out of the picture... so a tough, tough nut to crack! Given my recent lack of experience at tournament level, perhaps I should aim for something more like going 3:2 over the weekend! Wish me luck and I'll provide feedback on the lists and the games next week!